Case Stockman Pocket Knife

Cons: Blade Sharpness, None

Good Steel But Will Rust

Two things you will need to know about these knives: 1) It has good steel, but the knives will rust. And, if you are like me, and you carry these knives on the job, and you work in the heat of the summer when you sweat like a pig, these knives will rust like you left them in the ocean for a couple of days. Mine rusted so bad, that I had to take one of those abrasive erasers and completely sand it down. With hindsight, if you carry these in your pants pocket like I do and you do manual labor, you are much better off getting the 440 C version. (that is what I would do if I had to do it again).2) Unless you are purchasing a high end stockman knife, I have yet to find one that is properly ground. Expect to spend a lot of time reprofiling the blade to be able to put a keen edge on it.Unless you are an experienced man in how to profile a knife, these knives are hollow ground making profiling extremely challenging. Because the blades are so small, it is difficult to get a proper profile from the factory. Therefore expect to work these extensively to set a proper angle in order to be able to put a proper edge on the blade.This will take you quite a while because you must do it by hand or else risk compromising the blades because they are so small.The way I do it is I take a bastard file and reprofile the blades and then use a coarse stone to get the correct final profile. If you do this correctly you will never have to do this again for the life of the knife. If you do manual work and still want to get the Chrome Vanadium version, and you don't want to use oil, you can do what I do for my survival blades and use wax. In my survival kit, I carry a tin of Neutral Shoe Polish Wax which will last you for many years. After use in a particularly wet environment, just coat the blade with shoe wax and you are all set. (You just dip your thumb and forefinger into the tin and take a swipe and rub it on both sides of the blade-takes about 6 seconds). Normally you won't have to worry about rust, and if you are chopping, you will find it really helps in making your cuts. If you aren't experienced in reprofiling a knife, especially these stockman blades, I suggest two things: 1) buy a cheap blade with a flat grind. These are the easiest to profile and then practice.Get the knife set to the degree that you are comfortable with, then go to a cheap chinese stockman like the Shrade or the Buck stockman which has a serious double grind just because so many newbies were complaining about the difficulty of getting a good profile on their stockman folders. Practice finding the profile that works best for you before you upgrade to these high quality stockman blades. Better to ruin a $10.00 knife than a $50.00 knife. How do you know that you have the right profile? Your knife will tell you. It tells you when it cuts effortlessly and is extremely easy to touch up the blade with a few licks on a stone or strop.